Hosea 4:12-15 NIV

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Hosea 4:12-19

In these verses we have, as before, I. The sins charged upon the people of Israel, for which God had a controversy with them, and they are, 1. Spiritual whoredom, or idolatry. They have in them a spirit of whoredoms, a strong inclination to that sin; the bent and bias of their hearts are that way; it is their own iniquity; they are carried out towards it with an unaccountable violence, and this causes them to err. Note, The errors and mistakes of the judgment are commonly owing to the corrupt... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Hosea 4:12

My people ask counsel at their stocks ,.... Or "at his wood" F1 בעצו "in ligno suo", V. L. Montanus, Calvin; "liguum suum", Pagninus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. , or stick; his wooden image, as the Targum; their wooden gods, their idols made of wood, mere stocks and blocks, without life or sense, and much less reason and understanding, and still less divinity. Reference is here had either to the matter of which an idol was made, being the trunk of a tree, or a block of wood;... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Hosea 4:13

They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains ,.... The highest part of them, nearest to the heavens, where they built their altars to idols, and offered sacrifice unto them, as we often read in Scripture they did: and burn incense upon the hills ; to their idols, which was one kind of sacrifice put for all others: under oaks, and poplars, and elms ; and indeed under every green tree that grew upon them, where there were groves of them raised up for this purpose; see Jeremiah 2:20 ... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Hosea 4:14

I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredoms, nor your spouses when they commit adultery ,.... Either not punish them at all, so that they shall go on in sin, and to a greater degree, to the disgrace and reproach of their parents and husbands; or not as yet, or not so severely in them, because it was by their example they were led into it. Jarchi's note is very impertinent, that God threatens them with the disuse of the bitter waters of jealousy. The words are by some rendered... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Hosea 4:15

Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend ,.... That is, though the Israelites, the people of the ten tribes, committed adultery, both corporeal and spiritual, in their idolatrous worship, as before observed, to which they had been used ever since the times of Jeroboam the first, and were hardened therein, and from which there were little hopes of reforming them; yet let not the men of Judah be guilty of the same crimes, who have as yet retained the pure worship of God... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Hosea 4:12

At their stocks - They consult their wooden gods. And their staff declareth - They use divination by rods; see the note on Ezekiel 21 (note), where this sort of divination (rabdomancy) is explained. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Hosea 4:13

Under oaks - אלון allon , from אלל alal , he was strong. Hence, the oak, in Latin, is called robur ; which word means also, strength, the oak being the strongest of all the trees of the forest. The shadow thereof is good - Their "daughters committed whoredom, and their spouses committed adultery." Their deities were worshipped by prostitution. They drank much in their idol worship, Hosea 4:11 , and thus their passions became inflamed. 3. The thick groves were favorable... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Hosea 4:14

I will not punish - Why should you be stricken any more; ye will revolt more and more. When God, in judgment, removes his judgments, the case of that people is desperate. While there is hope, there is correction. Themselves are separated - There is a reference here to certain debaucheries which should not be described. The state of the people at this time must have been abominable beyond all precedent; animal, sensual, bestial, diabolical: women consecrating themselves to serve their... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Hosea 4:15

Let not Judah offend - Israel was totally dissolute; Judah was not so. Here she is exhorted to maintain her integrity. If the former will go to what was once Beth-el, the house of God, now Beth-aven, the house of iniquity, because Jeroboam has set up his calves there, let not Judah imitate them. Gilgal was the place where the covenant of circumcision was renewed when the people passed over Jordan; but was rendered infamous by the worship of idols, after Jeroboam had set up his idolatry. read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Hosea 4:12

Verse 12 The Prophet calls here the Israelites the people of God, not to honor them, but rather to increase their sin; for the more heinous was the perfidy of the people, that having been chosen, they had afterwards forsaken their heavenly Father. Hence My people: there is here an implied comparison between all other nations and the seed of Abraham, whom God had adopted; “This is, forsooth! the people whom I designed to be sacred to myself, whom of all nations in the world I have taken to... read more

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Hosea 4:12-19

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Hosea 4:12

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Hosea 4:13

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Hosea 4:14

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Hosea 4:15

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Hosea 4:12

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Hosea 4:13

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Hosea 4:14

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Hosea 4:15

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Hosea 4:12

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